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INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA. 



NO EECOJiTSTEirCTIOX OR CAEPET-BAG GOVERNMENT 
UNDER PRETENSE OF PATRIOTIC M0TIVT:S. 



CUBAN PATRIOTS MUST NOT BE MADE TO PAT 
SPAIN'S WAR DEBT. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. B. R. TILLMAN, 

OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



IN THE 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



FRIDAY, APRIL IS, 1898. 



"WA-SHINGrXO^r. 

1898. 



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68640 



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SPEECH 

OF 

HO^. B. E. TILLMAlSr. 



The Senate having under consideration the joint resolution (S. R. 140) fox 
the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that 
the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the 
Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and 
Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the 
land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into 
effect- 
Mr. TILLMAN said: 

Mr. President: This is a grave, a solemn crisis in the nation's 
affairs. It is not a time for words to be lightly spoken. What- 
ever we may do, whichever of the resolutions we have under 
consideration shall be adopted, the only possible ending to them 
or to such action will mean war. There is to be war in any event 
unless Spain ignominiously backs down. 

We were told last night, and no doubt the American people feel 
it is true, that this is a time for action and not for words. But, 
Mr. President, the exigency is not so pressing but that we can 
make the issues clear and say to the world what we mean to do, 
and say it in words that can not be misconstrued. 

I shall address myself to this question in no partisan spirit. We 
gave an exhibition here some weeks ago of a unanimous House 
and a unanimous Senate voting $50,000,000 for the public defense. 

Popiilists, Democrats, Republicans are we, 
But we are all Americans to make Cuba free. 

I feel that I can claim this for the American people with the ex- 
ception of a few thousand who live within the purview or within 
the influence of boards of trade and chambers of commerce and 
banking houses, and that that sentiment now pulsates in the breast 
of every true American. 

If I shall in my speech present facts and utter words that may 
have the appearance of partisan bias I disclaim any such purpose, 
but I hope I shall be able to so measure my words that I will be 
£240 3 



given the credit for trying simply to present my views in a clear 
and tinmistakable manner and have those views based on facts 
and their necessary deductions. 

I regret that I can not rise to the high and pure plane which 
the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Gray] claimed yesterday to oc- 
cupy. I have "suspicion" in my nature, Mr. President, and it 
has been driven into me by the fact that my association with men 
has led me to know that the angels in this world are very few and 
far between, and I have heard none of their pinions fluttering in 
this Chamber since I have been here. [Laughter.] I am frank, 
and have always been so. I speak that which I feel, and I have 
always judged other men so until I have been forced by sad ex- 
perience to know that there are many who, like Talleyrand, use 
language to conceal their thoughts. 

The Senator from Delaware, after announcing in the most posi- 
tive language his absolute confidence in the President of the 
United States, and after proclaiming his purpose to cooperate 
with and assist with all his official power and influence the Exec- 
utive, seems to forget or to have forgotten that a Washington 
evening paper of yesterday had in it an account of a conference 
which he attended yesterday morning, which is part and parcel of 
the facts from which I shall draw deductions. The Evening Star 
says: 

An important conference was held at tlie White House this morning, and 
the subject is believed to have been the question of the Senate and House 
resolutions. Those engaged were Senators Gorman, Faulkneb, and Gray 
(Democrats), and Aldrich and Allison (Republicans). They had been 
sent for by the President. They were with the President nearly an hour, 
and when they left hurried away in carriages to the Capitol. 

The Senators admitted that an effort would be made to have the House 
resolution substituted for that of the Senate when it is passed. They did 
not, however, say that the President desired this to be done. 

It is perfectly legitimate and proper for Senators to confer with 
the President. The predecessor of the present Executive very 
rarely conferred with Senators [laughter] , and it is an improve- 
ment in our public affairs that we have now an Executive who will 
deign to con f er with Senators. However, the milk in the cocoanut 
is the fact that this conference had as its purpose the substitution 
of the House resolution for the Senate resolution. Upon that I 
will comment later on. 

Mr. President, the bone of contention here is as to the form of 
the resolution which we shall adopt which will lead to war. We 
are told that the House has acted with practical unanimity; that 
the Executive is ready; and that it is time for the Senate to stop 
talking and to act, and let slip the dogs of war. It is with no view 
of defending the Senate— for it needs no defense — that I desire to 

3240 



direct the attention of the country to the fact that two years a^o 
this body, by a vote of 64 to 6, passed the following resolution: 

Concurrent resolution. 

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring therein). 
That, in the opinion of Congress, a condition of public war exists between 
the Government of Spain and the Government proclaimed and for some time 
maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba; and that the United 
States of America should-maintain a strict neutrality between the contend- 
ing powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and 
territory of the United States. 

Resolved further, That the friendly offices of the United States should fcs 
offered by the President to the Spanish Government for the recognition of 
the independence of Cuba. 

There we proclaimed by a nearly unanimous vote that there 
was a government in Cuba, and that was not the Spanish Govern- 
ment. 

Mr. STEWART. And a similar resolution passed the House of 
Representatives. 

Mr. TILLMAN. Wait, my friend. 1 will come to the history 
of the facts if the Senator from Nevada will just allow me. 

This resolution was sent to the House of Representatives, and 
that body, by a vote of 262 to 17, passed a siibstitute, and I will 
read it. It is as follows: 

That in the opinion of Congress a state of public war exists in Cuba, the 
parties to which are entitled to belligerent rights, and the United States 
should observe a strict neutrality between the belligerents. 

Resolved, That Congress deplores the destruction of life and property 
caused by the war now waging in that island, and believing that the only 
permanent solution of the contest, equally in the interests of Spain, the peo- 
ple of Cuba, and other nations, would be in the establishment of a govern- 
ment by the choice of the people of Cuba, it is the sense of Congress that the 
Government of the United States should use its good offices and friendly 
influence to that end. 

Resolved, That the United States has not intervened in struggles between 
any European governments and their colonies on this continent; but from the 
very close relations between the people of the United States and those of 
Cuba, in consequence of its proximity and the extent of the commerce be- 
tween the two peoples, the present war is entailing such losses upon the 
people of the United States that Congress is of opinion that the Government 
of the United States should be prepared to protect the legitimate interests 
of our citizens by intervention, if necessary. 

You see that the House then, with its majority of 150 of the 
present President's party in power, went further than the Senate. 
The man who then stood in the way was a so-called Democratic 
President. Both Houses of Congress by practically unanimous 
votes declared that there was a "government" in Cuba, because 
the House later on having failed to have the Senate accept its sub- 
stitute, concurred in the Senate resolution and passed it. There- 
fore we have both Houses of that Congress committed to the prop- 
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6 

osition that even two years ago there existed a "government" 
in Cuba. What has become of that government? I pause for a 
reply. 

But, Mr. President, the Senate did not stop there. "When the 
President failed to act, there was some mention made in this body 
of passing a joint resolution and sending it to the President, but 
it did not obtain much support and di'opped out of sight. But 
last year, after the party which at St. Louis declared in its plat- 
form for the independence of Cuba had assumed control of the 
Grovernment, the Senate, the citadel of liberty in America t(?-day, 
passed another resolution, and this time it was a joint resolution. 
May 20, 1897, by a vote of 41 yeas, to 14 nays, but 2 Democrats 
voting in the negative, this resolution passed the Senate: 

Joint resolatioii declaring tliat a Gondltion of pnlilic war exists in Cuba, and 
that strict neutrality shall be maintained. 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled. That a condition of public war exists between 
the Government of Spain and the government proclaimed and for some time 
maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba, and that the United 
States of America shall maintain a stiict neutrality between the contending 
powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and terri- 
tory of the United States. 

There the Senate again acted. Where has that resolution slept 
for a year? You all know. It is not my purpose to criticise the 
men who have their duties to perform at the other end of this 
Capitol; but, gentlemen, let us keep the record straight. The 
Senate has acted once, and acted twice, and we are told by the 
committee of the Senate in its report, which is here accompanying 
the pending resolution, that if belligerent rights had been granted 
to Cuba two years ago all of this difficulty would have been ob- 
viated and the Cubans would have achieved their own independ- 
ence. The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge], one of the 
members of that committee, has announced the same proposition 
in his speech of yesterday in the strongest possible language. 

Who is responsible for the condition of war into which we are 
fast hastening? The Executive, after exhansting diplomacy and 
being exhausted by diplomacy— because he has got to the end of 
his rope [laughter] — under the whip and lash of outraged public 
opinion, after withholding his message time and again, and being 
told by the members of the two Houses that he must act, sends a 
message looking to intervention, and the House of Representa- 
tives, which has had this resolution of belligerency in its keeping 
since last May, at last decides to act, and then, with indecent haste 
and only forty minutes' debate, as though it were the ukase of a 
czar at the White House, passes a resolution declaring for inter- 
vention and probable war, and sends it to this body. Are we to 

SSiO 



sit here silent and not discuss the conditions under which this war 
should be conducted and carried on? No, Mr. President, we have 
waited long enough; too long. If any harm shall come by reason 
of waiting, it does not lie with the Senate or at our door. If tho 
Spanish flotilla and the accompanying fleet shall get into Amer- 
ican waters and some of our battle ships shall be sent to join tho 
Maine, it will not be our fault. 

We have acted once. We have besn ready to act for a month 
or more, but other branches of the Government have delayed. 
Let the responsibility rest there. Now let us decently and in 
order, and with proper elucidation of the facts and the conditions, 
discuss this question calmly and in a spirit of patriotism, and ar- 
rive at a just and proper conclusion; in other words, let us "be 
sure we are right and then go ahead. " 

Mr. President, what is the contention here? What are we dis- 
cussing? Why the delay? Simply about the form of the resolu- 
tion which we shall adopt, the results of which are so momentous 
both to ourselves and to the people to whom we pretend, or to vchom 
we intend, to give relief. It is whether we shall recognize a gov- 
ernment which two years ago we declared existed, and which one 
year ago we reiterated existed, or whether we shall, in obedience 
to the influences at the White House, leave the matter in a nebu- 
lous condition, so that there maybe any interpretation put upon 
it that the Executive hereafter chooses. 

The message of the President has been read so often and com- 
mented on at such length that I hope the Senate will bear with 
me if 1 feel constrained to read a few of these same hackneyed 
phrases once more and give my comment on them, understand- 
ing, gentlemen, that, being a man who means what he says, or tries 
to — I do not always do it, because I am not immaculate; I am noth- 
ing but a sinner, a common ordinary human being — but, as I said, 
trying to mean what I say and say what I mean, and knowing the 
importance in a great public paper like this, at a crisis like this, 
of having the Executive mean what he says and of saying what 
he means, and having this Senate in its resolutions say what it 
means and mean what it says, I must, in the performance of a 
duty, as I said, read some of these extracts and give my deduc- 
tions from them. 

Briefly stated, and culling out the sentences and stringing them 
together which embrace the recommendations and the opinions 
of the Executive, we may put it in this way: That the President 
asked Congress to "authorize and empower him to take measures 
to secure a full and final termination of the hostilities between 
the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba, imposing a 
rational compromise between the contestants by hostile constraint 
3310 



'apon both parties, as well as to impose a trace to insure peace 
and tranquillity, and for the purpose of securing in the island the 
establishment of a stable government, and to use the Army and 
Navy to enforce those recommendations. " 

1 have culled sentences from the message and strung them 
together in one consecutive sentence. I know the unfairness of 
using garbled extracts; but, Mr President, study the message as 
you may, and, interpreted according to the ordinary meaning of 
English words, you can not make the message mean anything else 
than what those words convey. Coupled with the facts that have 
been brought out here and through the newspapers and in the 
oflacial reports, I think I can say that the President of the United 
States has, by his own words and acts, proclaimed that he is not a 
friend to the idea of free Cuba. He does not believe in the re- 
public, and he has not wanted a republic. It is that belief, im- 
planted in my mind by his own language, which leads me to 
want this Senate to make the meaning of the cause of this war 
and its pui'pose as clear as sunlight. 

What are the causes which have led the House of Representa- 
tives to linger so long, to wait before recognizing belligerent 
rights? What are the causes which have prevented one Execu- 
tive elected by one party and his successor of another party, not- 
withstanding the obligations of its platform, which he accepted 
when he was nominated — what, I say, are the influences which 
have made these men linger and put off the day of redemption for 
Cuba? I wish to God that I had no "suspicion." I would that 
■the circumstances were not such as to compel suspicion; but I see 
in every line of this message a purpose to impose upon the Cubans 
a recognition of the Spanish debt owned by the American bond- 
holders. 

Why does the President want the House resolution passed instead 
of the Senate resolution? Why, gentlemen, we are even threat- 
ened with a veto in the event that we see proper to act according 
to the responsibilities which have been placed upon us. I say we 
are threatened with a veto if we dare go forward and proclaim 
the independence of the Republic of Cuba and fix beyond cavil 
the status of that people. It is an obligation before the world 
which we can not shirk. 

The Evening Star of yes.erday said, and the newspapers of this 
morning repeated the statement, that — 

Should Congress pass a resolution directly recognizing tlie independence 
of the Island ot Cuba, as proposed in the Senate and House minority resolu- 
tions, it is strongly hinted that the President might veto it as interfering 
with his prerogative to do this. He would, it is intimated, consider it an 
encroachment upon his functions and rights. 

We have recognized the belligerency of the "government of 
Cuba " twice in this body. Now, when we come to the crucial 
3210 



9 

test as to whether we shall recognize the independence of the re- 
public, we are told that we will be met with a veto. Ai-e we to 
be intimidated by that threat? Are we to hesitate and halt and 
refuse to ratify our previous acts, and to put our resolution in 
language that means only one thing, and that is that there shall 
be no reconstruction in Cuba under the auspices of the United 
States Government? 

The newspapers told us— and the Washington newspapers, I 
find, are nearly always correct in their news — that the House 
and Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, pending the send- 
ing of the President's message, had practically agreed upon a 
resolution which recognized the independence of the Republic 
of Cuba. If that was not true, some member of the committee, 
if he feels disposed to give out committee secrets— we have 
had some of them given out, and I do not know why this one 
should not be— if it is not true, I should be glad to have it denied. 
[A pause.] I can not, of course, say that ' ' silence gives consent," 
but we certainly have silence. Why did the Senate committee 
change the phraseology of the resolution? Why did the House 
committee come as near as possible to granting to the President 
all he ashed except that they provide for an independent govern- 
ment of the Cuban people by themselves? They gave everything 
else he asked except that, and then, if that could be reached by 
intervention, without the use of the Army and the Navy, it would 
be permissive only; it would not be mandatory to so use them. 

The Senate resolution, which we seek to amend so as to purge 
it of the slightest ambiguity, says that the "people of Cuba are, 
and of right ought to be, free." Who are the people of Cuba? 
The President, under his recoustruction policy, which we grant 
him if this resolution be adopted, will have the right to determine 
who are the people of Cuba. The Army of the United States once 
in possession of the island and Spain expelled, we will have the 
necessity imposed upon the Executive by our consent and through 
his own wish of having elections held under the auspices of the 
officers of the Army. Who is going to appoint the returning 
boards? Who is to count the votes? 

Mr. President, perhaps the fact that the State which I have the 
honor in part to represent has been through that mQl once causes 
me to be more suspicious in regard to the possible outcome of 
this action and to look forward to a repetition of the scenes which 
we had in our State when we were reconstructed. God forbid 
that I should lend by any vote of mine any countenance to any 
such scheme. 

The people who have on the eastern end of the Island of Cuba 
maintained their independence and kept the Spanish soldiers out 
for three years during this last war and for ten years during the 
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10 

previous war, whether they have a government which is station- 
ary or not, have a government such as we have declared existed 
once, which we have recognized as having the rights of bellig- 
erents once, and which we can now well afford to recognize again. 

Is it possible that in all the western half of that island, which 
has been so cruelly devastated, a great many thousands, and pos- 
sibly hundreds of thousands, of refugees have not escaped death 
by starvation within the trochas? Did they not escape and flee to 
the east and scatter throaghout that country which has been always 
held by the patriots? I am almost sure that many of the younger 
and abler men — in fact, almost all of them — are to-day in the east- 
ern end with rifles in their hands, and they have sworn by the 
Almighty God to avenge the wrongs of their starving wives and 
children and of their outraged daughters; and yet yoti propose to 
have those gallant soldiers told ' ' Y o;i are not the free people of 
Cuba, but the Spaniards who are in Havana and in the other cities, 
who have ruined your homes, who have burned your houses and 
destroyed yotir industries — in truth, they are to be brought in and 
recognized as the people of Cuba." 

The question appears to be whether we shall recognize the ex- 
isting government, whatever may be its obligations, or whether 
we shall recognize no government, but declare in general terms 
that the people of Cuba are free, and then go there and have an 
election under our control and direction so as to set up a govern- 
ment of our making. Will that government have any carpetbag- 
gers among its officers? 

For the President of the United States I have a profound respect 
as a man. His pirsonal record is as clean as that of any man in 
this country and his honor is above suspicion. But, Mr. Presi- 
dent the President of the United States is surrounded by men 
whom I do suspect, whom I do mistrust. He has, so to speak, 
some very "wicked partners" [laughter], and I have seen proof, 
to my mind absolutely conclusive, that the Spanish bondholders 
have kept down, through their influence in New York and else- 
where, any action by the Executive or by the two bodies of 
Congress — by the House when it had an opportunity to act in ah 
effective way, and it only acts now because obliged to. I say, hav- 
ing seen evidence of these things, I am compelled to have "suspi- 
cions." 

The issue appears to be whether the Cuban bonds, issued by 
that government through its instrumentality in New York to 
secure the independence of the island, or the Spanish bonds issued 
by Spain to conquer the island shall be paid. I do not want, and, 
so help me God, I will never vote for any proposition which even 
winks at proposing to impose upon that bleeding island a debt 
issued by Spain to secure its conquest. We have been told by the 

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11 

Senator from Massaclmsetts [Mr. HoarJ that bonds are things 
which now come around babies' necks when born, and it seems 
that the people of the whole world are becoming slaves to bond- 
holders of one kind or another; that international syndicates pos- 
sess more influence than governments; that governments declare 
peace or levy war at theii- dictation, or that the governments can 
not help themselves, and we are to present the spectacle here of 
leaving the suspicion in the minds of even our own people that 
such a syndicate exists and our own action is predicated upon 
their demand, Armenia has been left to the tender mercies of 
the brutal and fanatical Turk. Greece was struck down and lies 
bleeding at every pore while the CHRISTIAN POWERS stand 
idly by held back by the bondholders who hold the Turkish debt. 
Is this great Republic to be thus disgraced? God forbid that it 
should sink so low! 

Mr. President, this is the first time in our history that we have 
ever interfered with any of the colonies of a foreign power in the 
Western Hemisphere except to recognize their independence. 
We fought the Mexican war more as a war of conquest than a 
necessity, because Texas had successfully defended her liberty, 
and it was not doubtful as to whether or not she could continue to 
maintain it. While men proclaim that there is no suspicion or 
purpose or intent to annex Cuba the world outside, which does 
not judge men by any other code than that which obtains in this 
day and which is the essence of greed, will say that "you do not 
mean that when you pass this resolution without recognizing the 
government now in existence." If we go down there and set up a 
carpetbag government of our own, or if there are no carpetbag- 
gers among them and we set up a Cuban government, what do we 
entail upon ourselves? 

I desire first to lay down the proposition— the clear, unmistak- 
able docti-ine— and let it be recalled to the minds of Senators as 
to what Monroe meant and said and what we are contending for 
as the true American policy. I read from President Monroe's 
famous message: 

We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing be- 
tween the United States and those powers to declare that we should con- 
sider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies 
or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not 
interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence 
and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration 
and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for 
the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in other manner theii- destiny 
by any European power ia any other light than as a manifestation of an un- 
friendly disposition toward the United States. 

There we proclaimed that we would not interfere with the col- 
onies of other powers, and yet we are now going to interfere and 
32i0 



-»12 

we are going to interfere without first having recognized the 
independence of the men who brought on the war and maintained 
it for thirteen years. 

I am not going to get into a discussion with well- trained law- 
yers as to what would be oiir international obligations under the 
conditions which they suggest, but I contend that if we do not 
recognize the independence of the Cuban Government in some 
form, though that government may be peripatetic, may be moving 
about, £0 to speak, we lay ourselves open to the accusation of the 
European powers of intending something else besides the mere 
setting up of an independent, stable government of the Cuban 
people for themselves. The President says: 

Such recognition is not necessary in order to enable the United States to 
intervene and pacify the island. To commit this country now to the recog- 
nition of any particular government in Cuba might subject us to embarrass- 
ing conditions of international obligation toward the organization so recog- 
nized. In case of intervention our conduct would be subject to the approval 
or disapproval of such government. We would be required to submit to its 
direction and to assume to it the mere relation of a friendly ally. 

He speaks further down in his message of the ' ' attributes of 
nationality" and of the "interests and relations of the United 
States with such a government." 

We were told by the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Foraker] that large 
numbers of these Spanish bonds, for which the Cuban revenues are_ 
hypothecated as security, are held in America. Are the holders 
of those Spanish bonds, who bought them in the open market 
knowing the danger of their being repudiated or lost by war, here 
with their agents on this floor and in the other end of the Capitol 
trying to saddle this debt upon those people? I can not believe it; 
but what am I to believe? 

The papers have told us— I do not know how true the story is— 
that there have been midnight conferences between Senators and 
the Spanish minister. There is nothing in the President's mes- 
sage which seeks to make clear his purpose to recognize the inde- 
pendence of these people at all except the brief sentence at the 
end, which I will now read: 

In view of these facts and of these considerations, I ask the Congress to 
authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full and 
final termination of hostilities between the Government of Spain and the 
people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable gov- 
ernment, capable of maintaining order and observing its international obli- 
gations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as 
well as our own. 

There is the only possible sentence in the message that looks to 
Cuban independence at all, and here we have to strain the mean- 
ing of his language and take as a fact what can only be implied 
as to his meaning. All of his other language leads us inevitably 
to a contrary opinion, and the message must be construed as a 

S240 



13 

wliole. He speaks about " hostile constraint," and "rational com- 
promise," and so on, all looking to some species of psendo- 
independence or autonomy or some otker humbng by which the 
Spanish bonds may be saddled npon this sorely distressed island 
and its people. For the benefit of •whom? The bond is stronger than 
the man; money talks; men are cheap. The sinister influence of 
tlie dollar appears to be i^aramount in this Capitol, and we are to 
put ourselves on record as to whether we indorse the proposition 
that the Spanish bonds can by any possibility be saddled on these 
people under the reconstruction government which is proposed. 

But, Mr. President, aside from the m.oral and legal obligations 
to other nations which would be imposed on us in the event that 
we go there and set up a government, taking the island, the corpus, 
so to speak, and setting up a " stable " government of our own— to 
which the President himself alludes— even if we recognize such 
government, with that recognition will go the demand that they 
must pay our American bondholders, and if we demand that they 
shall pay bonds held by our citizens, in God's name will not 
Germany and France and England demand that they shall pay 
theirs? Suppose that condition of affairs arises, what will be the 
result? 

We expel the Spaniards. We will pa,cify the island. We will 
go there ignoring the present Cuban government. We will order 
an election; we will say it will be an honest election; that there 
shall be no cheating; no counting in or counting out; no military 
interference, except to see a free vote and a fair count. And when 
the representatives of that government meet, who can recognize 
it as a stable government? Can this Congress do it? Will this 
Congress act? Under the hypnotic influences which seem abroad 
in this land, is it at all probable that anything will be done here- 
after, after that settlement has been made, except that there will 
be dicker and barter and trade and coercion on the part of this Gov- 
ernment to force a recognition of a part at least of this debt? 

Then suppose that we force it, and it becomes one of the infamies 
for which we will be responsible to God, who is going to collect 
the interest? The Cubans who are to-day in arms, and most of 
whom have been for thirteen years, have been driven to the moun- 
tains and fastnesses of the forests of Cuba by oppression which 
meant for them either to become robbers and guerrillas, so to 
speak, or slaves. They had no alternative. They have resisted 
oppressive taxation and tyranny in the same manner that the 
American people resisted it in 1775 and 1776. We will say that 
you set up a reconstruction government under this scheme which 
we have coming here from the House, and which is permissible 
even under the Senate joint resolution as reported by the commit- 
tee, then what follows? 
3310 



14 

For a time the debt will be recognized and the interest collected, 
but so sure as men are men like we are and the Cubans believe that 
debt is dishonest and oppressive and ought never to have been 
saddled on them, there will be a revolution and that government 
will be overthrown, and the refusal to pay the interest and the obli- 
gation which will have been imposed on them under this proposition 
of reconstruction and infamy will entail on us the necessity of 
entering upon the island and enforcing the obligation just as 
Egypt has been seized by England to collect the interest on the 
bonds which her citizens hold as the result of loaning money to 
the Khedive. Then we will have a nice situation. 

The island for a quarter of a century, almost, has been in a state 
of chronic insurrection, with the Spanish Government trying to 
maintain supremacy. We propose to take Spain's place and be- 
come the policeman of the Western Continent and keep in order 
on that island the Latin races that have settled there. We can 
not afford it. Duty demands that we expel the Spanish robbers 
and tyrants. There our duty ends. We can not afford, Mr. Presi- 
dent, to set up any government there. We can not afford to do 
anything except to recognize the existing government and let them 
work out their own redemption, as the other Spanish- American 
Republics have had to do. 

They have had their revolutions and counter revolutions. I do 
not believe the people of that race are capable of self-govern- 
ment. While Mexico has under the great and magnificent states- 
man who now dominates her affairs had tranquillity and peace 
and a stable government for a long time, and is moving forward 
rapidly in progress, we can not undertake to say that the Cuban 
people must have a stable government, and that we will make for 
them a stable government, if we are going there and say in order 
to have this stable government " you must pay the Spanish debt 
or some part of it." 

If we go there recognizing the existing condition and the gov- 
ernment which we have already recognized once, we will approach 
those people in a spirit of amity and friendliness and fairness and 
justice which will appeal to them, and we can have influence 
with them — even with bandits and mulattoes, and the worstele- 
ment of those struggling for liberty — and we can appeal to them 
by moral obligation, if nothing else, to be law abiding and civi- 
lized. But if we undertake to say that we will set up a " stable 
government " loaded down with the Spanish debt, and enforce sta- 
bility by maintaining peace, then we will have to increase our 
standing Army, and we will have to maintain an army there time 
out of mind to enforce the collection of an unjust obligation put 
upon those people. In a word, we will take Spain's place as the 
oppressor and tyrant. 
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15 

Mr. President, recognition is an Executive act. It is ti-ne we 
are undertaking now, and I understand that is what the President 
objects to, to recognize independence which he has reftised to 
recognize. He even refuses to recognize belligerent rights, which 
would carry with it the legal right to refnse to pay this debt. 
Through every line of the message and the policy outlined in it 
there appears nothing to me btit bonds, bonds, bonds. And it is 
because we of Sonth Carolina have had so many bonds of that 
kind foisted on us in the dreary years of the past, during the era 
of reconstruction, that I, for one, stand here an-d protest in the 
name of American freemen, in the name of decency, of Christian- 
ity, of fairness and justice and peace, which can not be maintained 
on any other basis, against any policy, against the adoption of 
any resolution, against the leaving out of any word which ought 
to go in to make it absolutely plain and clear and unmistakable 
that we do not intend to annex the island; and that we do not in- 
tend to interfere with their internal affairs, other than to expel 
Spain and enable the Cuban patriots to inaugurate, under their 
own auspices and under their own machinery, a government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. 

I say I will not vote for any proposition which does not contain 
these declarations. I will even reject and vote against, in my 
bounden duty to my people, the Senate joint resolution, unless 
there is incorporated in it the amendment proposed by the mi- 
nority, or unless the Senate shall supplement those resolutions 
for free Cuba by a declaration on our part — and I do not see why 
we can not do that — that the Spanish debt shall be settled by the 
Cuban people of their own volition and in their own way, with- 
out any coercion on our part. We can not afford to do less. If 
we recognize the independence, the question of bonds need not 
arise. We have recognized it once, not independence, but the 
fact that a government exists there. If we meant what we said 
then, why not go forward and repeat those words? 

Mr. President, I said that whatever happens here, it did not 
matter what resolution was passed, we are going to have war. I 
do not want any war. I have not wanted it at all. My people do 
not want it. The North has had war and had thousands and hun- 
dreds of thousands of the flower of its manhood sent home to be 
buried as the result of that war. We of the South had our own 
jewels sent back to us in the same waj^ Both in the Revolution- 
ary war, when my State was overrun from sea to mountain and 
when her people suffered untold wrong and villainy and oppres- 
sion, such as no other colony endured, and fought more battles 
for liberty than were fought in almost all the other States put to- 
gether; and in the last war, when we passed beneath the harrow, 

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16 

we have had otir fill of bloodletting and of war in its most dread- 
ful form. 

We do not want any war. But while the feeling among our 
people was that of sympathy for the suffering Cubans, such as 
existed almost everywhere, it could not take shape and did not 
assume form until that flaming fuse was sent abroad throughout 
this land which followed the explosion of the torpedo or mine 
under the Maine. That fuse flamed and flared and si^ed while 
the people held their breath. There was no bomb attached at 
the time. The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Proctoe], by his 
calm, dispassionate, and almost judicial statement of facts, which 
appealed to the sentimentality and Christian charity and philan- 
thropy and sympathy and mercy of every man worthy the name, 
furnished the bomb. 

The bomb is here, the fuse is attached to it and lighted, and it 
is approaching an explosion. The explosion will come whether I 
vote for the pending joint resolution or not. I hope to God I will 
be able to get the Senate to incorporate something in it or to 
amend it so as to allow me to vote for it. But, as I said, whether 
I vote for it or not, the people I represent are to-day a unit, the 
American hearts within us throb and pulsate with the sense of 
wrong and indignation, and the blood which we inherited from 
Revolutionary sires tingles with the demand for justice upon the 
assassins who sent those American sailors to their death. 

In the war that is now inevitable South Carolinians will not be 
laggards in upholding the flag of our country or in carrying it to 
Victory in so righteous a cause. 
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